Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle Reading App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Buy Used

$5.99

Comment: Eligible for FREE Super Saving Shipping! Fast Amazon shipping plus a hassle free return policy mean your satisfaction is guaranteed! Good readable copy. Worn edges and covers and may have small creases. The cover may have wear and if there is a dustjacket, it may have normal wear. There may be light writing or highlighting. All pages are present and item is in good condition.

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and .

A powerful and affecting new book from Caryl Phillips: a brilliant hybrid of reportage, fiction, and historical fact that tells the stories of three black men whose lives speak resoundingly to the place and role of the foreigner in English society.

Francis Barber, “given” to the great eighteenth-century writer Samuel Johnson, more companion than servant, afforded an unusual depth of freedom that, after Johnson’s death, hastened his wretched demise . . . Randolph Turpin, who made history in 1951 by defeating Sugar Ray Robinson, becoming Britain’s first black world-champion boxer, a top-class fighter for twelve years whose life ended in debt and despair . . . David Oluwale, a Nigerian stowaway who arrived in Leeds in 1949, the events of whose life called into question the reality of English justice, and whose death at the hands of police in 1969 served as a wake-up call for the entire nation.

Each of these men’s stories is rendered in a different, perfectly realized voice. Each illuminates the complexity and drama that lie behind the simple notions of haplessness that have been used to explain the tragedy of these lives. And each explores, in entirely new ways, the themes—at once timeless and urgent—that have been at the heart of all of Caryl Phillips’s remarkable work: belonging, identity, and race.

4 Stars and Up Feature: Kitchens of the Great Midwest
"Foodies and those who love contemporary literature will devour this novel that is being compared to Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge. A standout." --Library JournalLearn more

*Starred Review* In each of his somberly beautiful and lacerating books, Phillips, a virtuoso, prizewinning novelist with a biographer's avidity for fact, tells the stories of individuals caught up in the African diaspora, and ponders the question of how one retains a sense of self under the annihilating onslaught of racism. In this elegiac triptypch, he reclaims the lives of three black men in England, deciphering the toxic social chemistry that first gave each man hope, and then destroyed him. Francis Barber, brought to England from Jamaica at age 10, became Dr. Johnson's most trusted companion during the great literary genius' wretched last days, only to fall into an abyss of poverty and prejudice. Randolph Turpin, a mixed-race Englishman, astonished the world in July 1951 by winning a match against Sugar Ray Robinson, but Britain's first black champion boxer lost his bout with a hostile world. David Oluwale, a bright and ambitious Nigerian teenager, stowed away on a ship to England, intent on becoming an engineer. Instead he became the target of racist and sadistic policemen. A lone freedom fighter, he stood up to his attackers, who murdered him in 1969. As each elegantly restrained yet finely detailed tragic tale portrays a cruelly and unjustly condemned man and reveals hidden facets of English history, Phillips' brilliantly realized and indelible novel of remembrance poses an unspoken yet inevitable question, have things changed for "foreigners" of color? Seaman, Donna

More About the Author

Caryl Phillips is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction. His novel A Distant Shore won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and his other awards include the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and lives in New York.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Three historical figures, black or mixed-race, living at very different times in England, are the subject of Caryl Phillips's latest book. Two of them had come at a young age from the West Indies and West Africa respectively, the third was a son of an immigrant father and a white English mother. They have in common their belief that England is their home and their yearning to fit into the society of their time. All three marry into English families and raise families of their own. However, as a result of changing circumstances, they each end up in misery and hopelessness. In a merging of fictional reportage, memoir and description of historical facts, the author retraces their lives and the gradually more hostile environments leading to their unhappy end.

Francis Barber came to England as a young slave, gained his freedom and became the long time servant and companion of Samuel Johnson, the famous 18th century literary figure. Randolf Turpin turned into a national boxing hero around 1950, culminating in his briefly gaining the middleweight world championship. Finally, David Oluwale arrived in England in 1949 from his native Nigeria as a young stowaway and settled in the industrial region of Leeds. He became known as the first victim of racially motivated police brutality leading to his death in 1969.

Each story is self-contained - unconnected to the others. The links are the underlying themes of a black British subject's struggle to belong to "his" country. As an outsider in the "home" country, they must come to terms with a society that they inadequately understand and that is less than helpful in easing their adaptation and integration.

In attempting to place the stories in their true context, Phillips applies a different narration style to each tale.Read more ›

My strongest overall impression of this work is the apparent deterioration in the treatment of black men in England between the first story (1700s) and the third and last story (mid to late 1900s). Phillips brings us the mostly tragic true (but embellished) stories of three black men from English history - Dr. Johnson's servant; a boxing champion; and an African immigrant. Dr. Johnson's servent seems to come to a tragic end mostly due to his own inability to find his way after his long-term employer's death. Turpin, the boxer, is much his own worst enemy, but is also "fed upon" by white and black hangers-on, and the white community which was his home failed to provide support or assistance once he was no longer a star. The African immigrant's story, however, is more like that of an American inner-city black - a story of closed doors, no opportunity, hopelessness, and police brutality, at a time when the idea that racial prejudice is inhumane was just beginning to be more generally accepted.

Overall, an interesting and fairly enjoyable read. Certainly educational. That combined with the importance of the subject matter make this a strongly recommended work.

The memoirist/reporter style is a bit dry for the long haul, but the structure and the subject matter provide plenty to keep the reader plugged in. The multiple voices in the last story, switching without much warning and often without clear identification, make it a bit difficult. But it does achieve the documentary feel that is apparently intended.

Caryl Phillips writes with great power and beauty. Many of his books create a world in which the familiar becomes unfamiliar, as Phillips often writes from the point of view of new immigrants. Caryl Phillips latest work, "Foreigners: Three English Lives", combines three separate tales of black men in Great Britain. All three characters are based on actual individuals whose biographies are mixed by Philips with invented narration and moment.

The first novella concerns Francis Barber who found himself in an awkward place as both servant and friend to the 18th century English intellectual Dr. Johnson - who is best remembered as the originator of the dictionary. The second novella brings us up to the 1950's as we consider boxer Randy Turpin and his surprising defeat of the champion Sugar Ray Robinson for boxing's middleweight title in a fierce match in 1951. The third novella tracks, through multiple viewpoints and voices, the death of David Oluwale at the hands of the British police in 1968.

Caryl Phillips, by combining three disparate experiences of black men in Britain, forces us to break free from our stereotypes and look at Barber, Turpin and Oluwale as individuals. The three men are united by the color of their skin and the prejudices they experienced, but their separate and precious lives stand out as jewels on velvet. Highly recommended.

Three heartbreaking stories of three black men who were either brought to or decided to go home to the mother country. There is Francis Barber, the slave who became companion and friend to the writer Samuel Johnson; David Oluwale who stowed away on a ship from Nigeria because he thought that in the mother country, he could improve his station in life and Randolph Turpin, the boxer, who, even though had accomplished much in his boxing life was left penniless.All three men struggled to belong to the country that didn't want them. These are three stories that spell out the hardships that black men faced in England during the fifties and the sixties, and even though the doors had been opened for them to enter Great Britain and to do the menial jobs, they knew they were unwanted especially by the Teddy Boys and Enoch Powell.I liked this book, but found it a difficult read.